WHY YOUNG LIVING?

“But why do you use Young Living oils? Why not any other brand?”

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Listen up. I will tell you.

The vast majority of essential oils on the market today are only suitable for cosmetics and perfumes. That’s it folks. I don’t need to smell good, k? That’s a happy side effect 😉 I want my oils to DO ALL THE THINGS. Ya get me? I want them to #werk.

The reason Young Living’s oils are so different is their unmatched commitment to producing a pure, unadulterated oil. Young Living’s devotion to creating a highly therapeutic product means they’ve invested in their own farms, care for and nurture their own plants, trees, and shrubs, and finally distill, test, and bottle the oils that arrive on your doorstep.

We've seen this first hand at their Mona, Utah, and St. Maries, Idaho farms. Today, we spent the day at the Northern Lights farm in Canada. We’ve visited the Ecuador farm, and the Hawaii farm. We’ve seen the distillery in Spain, and are heading to the Italian farm next year. Anyone can go visit a YL farm!
DO IT. It will blow your mind.

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If at any point in the production process something doesn’t meet their standards, they get rid of it and start again. Because of this, our favorite oils sometimes go out of stock… and we are happy about it!

Because we love getting our oils from a company that doesn’t crank them out quickly in a lab to make a buck, but waits on the plants to grow (no synthetics) and until the batch is perfect.
They accept nothing less.

No other company owns farms or distilleries. Repeat. NONE. 
Mic drop.

Let me give you an example of how important it is for a company to know the right time of day to harvest the plant and exactly how long to distill the plant to produce the chemical compounds the plant contains that is therapeutic to our bodies.

HERE'S AN EXAMPLE!
CYPRESS ESSENTIAL OIL: which has 280 known chemical constituents.
* If it is distilled for 20 hours you only get 20 properties.
* If distilled for 26 hours you get NONE of the properties. 
* Most market cypress is distilled for 3.5 hours. 
* The correct length of time for distilling cypress is 24 hours to get the full 280 properties. 
If you want Cypress to do the job it is intended to do, you MUST get ALL 280 constituents, no more, no less. Most people do not realize essential oils have chemical properties in them and in order to get the full benefit out of that particular oil it has to be grown, harvested, and distilled the correct way or the oil contains no benefit to us.
MIC DROP. Again.

This is called Young Living’s Seed to Seal process.

Seed to Seal has three pillars. Sourcing, Science, & Standards. Young Living gets their oils from three sources - corporate owned farms, partner farms, and vetted Seed to Seal suppliers. All three go through the same 20+ tests, in triplicate, in-house and 3rd party testing is utilized. If an oil from a supplier doesn’t pass, it goes back and is rejected. Another company may purchase that rejected oil. If it is from a farm, it goes back to the earth in compost or used around the farm.

Seed to Seal is unmatched. It was created as YL’s standard because there is no universal standard that meets the quality needed. Every step from planting to bottling is detailed and controlled. And I’ve seen it first hand. And so can you.

But Young Living is more expensive, right? You’re right, often times it is and “you get what you pay for” has never been more true. Young Living is more expensive than other brands and oils you can find at Whole Foods or on Amazon because of its therapeutic grade. An ever-growing number of marketers have jumped on the essential oils bandwagon looking for an easy way to make a lot of money. Most of these oils are cheap imitations, purchased wholesale in large quantities, diluted with synthetic additives, and rebottled before being sold to you.

That’s not okay for us. We want the best for our babies and ourselves and we don’t want to “save money” short-term only to spend more long-term because we used something that didn’t do what it was supposed to or even harmed us.

Some of the other companies may claim that their oils are organic. Unfortunately, the term “organic” is not regulated by the FDA in regards to essential oils. They do not certify or grade essential oils so any oil you see making those claims is simply using the word. They did not have to do anything to earn it.

I’ve talked to the farmers, the workers. I know that they use our own oils as pest control. I know that they practice sustainable and fair farming methods. I know they treat their employees like family. I know they practice transparency. They make a mistake? They own it and then pave the way for new standards no one else has. I know they have a mission to provide for those who need it. I’ve seen it. Over and over again.

If you cannot walk onto your oil company's farms and watch them distill their oils at their very own distilleries, then don't use it. There’s a reason Young Living is the world leader, and has been, for 28 years. 🙌🏻🙌🏻

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By employing our Seed to Seal standards on our corporate owned farms, partner farms, and painstakenly vetted seed to seal suppliers, we ensure that NO ONE has more potent or more pure oils.

On the farms, managing our own crops enables us to carefully measure plant metabolism as we approach harvest time.

We do this by regularly sampling and measuring the BRIX values of the plants.

BRIX is a measure of the sugar level in the plants, which is indicative of plant metabolism (when plants photosynthesize, they store the energy from the sun as sugar).

We then harvest our plants at the peak of their metabolic processes, which ensures that they are producing the most and best oil of their lifecycles.

You CAN NOT do this if you don’t have access to the plants on your own farms.

In addition to that ☝🏼☝🏼☝🏼
Some of the testing YL does for every Oil:
Densitometry

  • Viscometry

  • Refractometry

  • Olfactometry

  • Polarimetry

  • Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS)

  • Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES)

  • Gas Chromatography (GC)

  • High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC)

  • Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

  • Automated Micro-Enumeration

  • Accelerated Stability Testing

  • Disintegration

  • pH

  • Microscopy

  • Combustibility

  • Flash Point

  • Water Activity

  • Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (GCMS)

  • Chiral Chromatography

  • Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS)

Young Living also owns two Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometers. In order to operate this instrument, it is required their scientists go thru two years of intensive training. This machine measures the ratios of isotopes.
Young Living is the ONLY Essential Oil Company in the world to have this instrument!

At an absolute minimum, YL runs 20 different tests in triplicate during the initial testing phase to make sure testing is consistent and viable.

All these tests are done in the quality control lab. If any of the tests fail, the oils are shipped to the research and development lab with different scientists and different instruments. If R&D fails it -product is disposed.

If the oil passes thru Quality Control it gets bottled and guess what...tested.

If that is not enough...

Young Living also utilizes a half dozen external expert labs to corroborate the quality.

Testing Results? Sure - click here! !

So next time you see a grocery store product Essential oil, or any other knock off brand company... please understand, you get what you pay for.

Let’s chat the organic label too!

SHARING IT ALL.

Hey hey friends! Here are some quick facts about me: 
➕ my name is annie.

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➕ i love coffee and babywearing and winged eyeliner.
➕ i co-own a salon in mt. airy (Culture Hair Studio)
➕i have a hubby (Chris Hauser), a 3.5 year old boy (grey), an 11 week old baby girl (mila), two doggies (luca is a golden and sakura is a shiba inu)
➕ we are passionate about travel, foster care, and natural living
➕ if you told me 3.5 years ago I’d be running an 18 million dollar+ a year business out of my house (legally. no walter white ish😂😂😂), usually in my bed or on my couch or at the park with my kids, regularly pantless, with my husband home full time from his corporate job he hated, making more money in a month than he used to make in a year, leading a community of over 23,000 families to a way of more natural and empowered living - I’d have LAUGHED IN YOUR FREAKING FACE.
➕ i’d have first said “that sounds sketch AF.” 
then i’d have said “wait is this one of those network marketing pyramid schemes?” 
then i’d have said “yeah no way in haaaaale am I stalking my friends to buy stuff from me” <insert eye roll>
sound perhaps like what is running through your head? 😂
➕ i’m gonna do something that makes me want to pee my pants a little and share our story. 
- how we started with oils
- how we started a business based on authenticity and a genuine desire to teach and educate and take people on a journey WITH us
- what crazy amazing things it’s done for our family

also, i have to share this whenever I talk about how f-ing awesome our job is. rules. 🙄😜 

ELDERBERRY SYRUP

Elderberry Syrup making dayyyyyyyyyy!

I just made a big batch of elderberry syrup, and we take 1 tbsp (1tsp for G) every few hours when we are not feeling ourselves, AND we take it every few days just as a general rule. Especially this time of the year when everyone else basically has the plague. 😬😬

So, what’s the deal with elderberries? Elderberries are rich in vitamins A, B and C and are a traditional cold and flu remedy used for hundreds of years. They are known to have high antioxidant activity and the bioflavonoids and other proteins in the juice of the berry destroy the ability of a cold or flu virus to infect a cell.

I added essential oils to add a extra dose of amazing to our elderberry syrup.

* Thieves Vitality – This is a seriously amazing blend of clove, lemon, cinnamon bark, eucalyptus radiata and rosemary. I’m just going out on a limb here and saying, this is powerful.

* Nutmeg Vitality – Besides tasting and smelling freaking awesome, this oil is GOOD STUFF.

* Clove Vitality – This is crazy high in antioxidants!

* Ginger Vitality – Part of keeping the immune system in tip-top shape is keeping digestion optimal. Over 90% of the immune system resides in the gut, so using ginger, with it’s ability to stimulate and regulate digestion, only seems natural.

* Cinnamon Bark Vitality – Another oil already found in the Thieves blend, cinnamon bark is a powerful support to the immune system.

* Frankincense Vitality – One of the gifts given to Jesus by the Three Wise Men, frankincense has been used for centuries. You should google Frankincense oil. Just do it. For real.

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This is the recipe I used - it was SO freaking easy!

2/3 cup dried black elderberries (about 3 ounces)
3 1/2 cups of water
YL Vitality Essential oils (cinnamon bark, nutmeg, ginger, frankincense, clove, orange)
1 cup local raw honey (we get it from our farmer's market)

Pour water into medium saucepan and add elderberries (do not add honey or EOs)

Bring to a boil and then cover and reduce to a simmer for about 45 minutes to an hour until the liquid has reduced by almost half. At that point, remove from heat and let cool enough to be handled. Mash the berries carefully using a spoon or other flat utensil. Pour through a strainer into a glass jar or bowl.

Discard the elderberries (or compost them!) and let the liquid cool to lukewarm. When it is no longer hot, add 1 cup of honey, and a drop of each essential oil and stir well. (I add extra orange to mine ❤️)

When honey is well mixed into the elderberry mixture, pour the syrup into a quart sized mason jar or 16 ounce glass bottle of some kind.

Here is where to grab your organic elderberries and where to grab your Weck juice jars. 

happy healthy home making my friends! ✌🏻

Also, lazy mama hack: when you run out of strawberry jelly for your kiddos yogurt, throw a teaspoon of elderberry syrup in there and mix it up! He LOVED it, and it's an amazing support to the immune system.

ELEPHANTS IN THE ROOM

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So let’s talk about the elephant in the room!!! YAY!!!!!! 

Did you guys know that Young Living is a…..*whispers very quietly*…MLM? aka Multi-Level Marketing company? aka a Network Marketing company? EEK. I know. I felt the SAME WAY. 
Really, when I heard that the company I had researched for WEEEEKS before I got my oils was a weird pyramid-ey network marketing company I was all - EW. REALLY? 
But then, I just held tight, and ordered some oils anyways. I was NEVER going to do the business. 
*eye roll*  blingy jewelry. HOLLLLLA!!!!

Clearly, my tune changed, as I started using them, and loving them, and people started asking me about them, and I answered question after question, until someone asked me to..again.. EEEEEK… BUY THEM FROM ME. And I was all “OH NO, I don’t SELL these!!!!” *insert my shocked face with a snooty eye roll attached*
But then, how hard could it be to send a link right? Maybe I would get my new obsession paid for. Andddd, that’s how the story goes. I am legit writing this post from an airplane, in first class, on my way home from a 5 day, fully paid for vacation that Young Living sent me on with my friends fo FREEEEE. Where they spoiled the crap out of us. Just because we worked hard at educating peeps and loving on them. YEAH. I changed my tune HARDCORE.

But, what IS that icky feeling I first had? For some reason MLMs have gotten a bad name. Maybe a bad experience with a distributor. Someone who was constantly inviting you to parties or asking you to buy things or “join their team.” 
Maybe you haven't actually had ANY experience but you know your mom doesn't like them so you don't either. What ever the case, I thought we should talk about some myths and facts.

Myth 1: MLMs are pyramid schemes and illegal.
Truth: Nope. The shape of an organization does not determine legality. ;)If it did, all businesses and organizations, including the government would be illegal because all have a pyramid structure.

Myth 2: Only the guy at the top makes money, and that's because they got in early.
Truth: Okay, so that was two myths in one. But neither are true. (And if we want to be REAL honest here, this argument more accurately describes a corporate world job ;) I mean, how often does a minimum wage worker become the CEO?) 
What I make isn't determined by what the person I signed up with makes, and that goes for the rest of my team. There are people who "out rank" people above them all the time. This business isn't dependent on the guy at the top. It's dependent on YOU and the amount of work you put it. That's it. And the whole they got in early part? I started this business with YL 20 years in. So yep, definitely didn't get in early.

Myth 3: Network marketing doesn’t work, it's all a scam.
Truth: According to the Direct Selling Association, in 2015 the direct sales industry, grossed $36.12 billion in retail sales in the United States. Further, over 20 million people in the U.S. are involved in direct sales. These numbers indicate that network marketing CAN work. Success or failure has less to do with network marketing itself, and instead (as I said before) is determined by the amount effort you put into your business. Instead of paying millions of dollars in ads, Young Living pays out millions of dollars to their distributors. Before you knock something and write it off as a scam, why not just think about the actual business model? It makes TONS of sense, and it's incredible because it's giving SO many families FREEDOM. I don't know what's better than that.

And frankly, our peeps USE the products. They are educated, and learning, wanting to do better for their families. Our Modern Essentials team did over $500,000 in sales last MONTH. A single month. I don't think my friends are buying half a million dollars worth of products and letting them sit on their shelves. They are using them, and ditching the toxic crap they were buying at Target or CVS or wherever. It's called transfer buying, my friends. ❤️

To my dear non-MLM friends, I love you. I'm SO sorry if you've had a bad experience with MLMs, but PLEASE don't forget to be kind. Don't forget that these are mamas, teachers, nurses and plain ol' FRIENDS who are building businesses. They're working hard. They're KILLIN' it. And even if you can't support their business financially, your words will support them more than you could ever imagine. ❤️ Some of the sweetest compliments I’ve been given regarding my business are friends who have ZERO interest in essential oils. I appreciate and cherish those friends very much!

To my dear MLM friends, I just want to tell you all that you're amazing. I'm sorry if you've experienced nay-sayers, but you do you girl. You keep on building that empire of yours 💪. I LOVE your leggings and lipstick that stays shellac-ed on my lips for 24 hours and your non toxic sunscreen and beauty balm and beer bread and sickkkkk blingy jewelry. HOLLLLLA!!!!

HOME

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Oh my goodness. We are home. Missing our baby, exhausted, and ready for our own bed, but so so so full of happiness and gratitude and purpose and knowledge and excitement. I knew we'd have fun at our first convention, but what I didn't know was how much deeper the connection would be when we left. A deeper connection in our marriage, a deeper connection to this company, to our team, and to our friends. I knew that Young Living was legit when it came to essential oils, because I did my research for weeks before getting my oils. I knew they had their own farms, I knew they had the most experience in essential oils, and the best and safest essential oils, and the only ones I'd ever let touch my son, but what I didn't know was how truly deep that went. I got to see Seed to Seal with my own eyes, and to touch it with my own hands. I got to understand the depth of what it means to love on people and love on this earth. It's ALL we've got. I got to see the heart that goes into everything this company and these people surrounding it stands for. I learned about the Young Living Foundation (https://younglivingfoundation.org) and the work they do in Uganda and Nepal and Ecuador. I met the people, the executives, the friends, the real, live everyday people that go and help and build and rebuild and support these people and children in need. I watched as over $800,000 was raised in 4 days for the Young Living Foundation. Where every CENT goes to building schools and homes and food and clothing. We were able to sponsor a little boy (not much older than Grey) in Ecuador, and our sponsorship will provide meals, clothing, and school supplies so he can attend the Young Living Academy. We'll get to meet him when we go to Ecuador next year, and smother him with hugs and kisses in person. It's AWESOME. The message radiating all over convention was LOVE ON PEOPLE. The energy everywhere was support and love and wellness and sharing that. It was life changing. I spent hours sitting around tables connecting with people who had so much to offer. People who truly embody the phrase BE A RIVER. Pouring out so much into everyone they meet. If you thought this was all about some yummy smelling oils you would be so so wrong. Yes, we were the best smelling 22,000 people in Utah, but it's so much more than that. I am so beyond thankful to be part of this family of people who have made it their life's mission to move others towards wellness and wholeness.